To Write Something (To Truly Say It)
by WinterSky101
Summary: Brainy has fans. Lyle understands. Reboot Legion. Brainy/Lyle.


**Title comes from a line in Supergirl 4.13 (Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk): "On some planets, to write something is to truly say it."**

* * *

It's not until Lyle gets stuck sorting out the mail that he realizes the truly amazing amount of fanmail that Brainy receives.

The rest of the Legionnaires all get a fair amount, of course, although Lyle doesn't tend to get too much himself. He's a spy, after all, and you don't make a very good spy if you've got hordes of fangirls following your every move. Lyle's not too interested in fan_girls_ anyway, so he doesn't particularly mind. But for whatever reason, he always assumed that Brainy didn't get much fanmail either. The heaping pile on the table informs him that he's very much wrong.

Lyle puts everyone else's mail into the chutes that deliver it to their rooms, but he hesitates with Brainy's. He's never seen Brainy open fanmail, after all, and Brainy's never mentioned it, so Lyle's not sure if he would want this much. He stares at it for a long moment, then he sweeps all of the envelopes into a bag and brings it to Imra.

"Did you know that Brainy gets an almost obscene amount of fanmail?"

"Oh, did no one explain it to you?" Imra asked, peeking into the bag. "Brainy gets a lot of fanmail, but he doesn't ever answer it. He doesn't even open it. You have to go through it and sort out what looks like fanmail and what looks like communication with other scientists. When in doubt, put it in the scientist pile. He only opens that."

Lyle blinks. "And where does the rest of it go?" he asks, because the majority of the envelopes in here are either pink, perfumed, or have every I dotted with a heart, and none of those things sound particularly scientific to him.

"Normally?" Imra admits. "The trash. We tried giving it to Brainy at first, but he just dumped it all in the corner of his room, so now we just throw it out."

Lyle frowns down at the bag. "That seems kinda rude." He answers all of his fanmail, after all, what little of it he gets. He thinks most other Legionnaires do too. If people care enough about them to send them messages, most of the Legionnaires feel they should care enough to reply.

"It's Brainy," Imra replies, which is a fairly good explanation. Still, Lyle's not going to accept it that easily.

"I'm going to talk to him about it," he declares.

Imra snorts. "Good luck."

Lyle's probably going to need it.

* * *

"Lyle!" Brainy greets as Lyle enters their lab. "I was wondering where you were. I want your opinion on this upgrade I'm considering for the Legion rings. I think-" Brainy finally looks up, and he frowns. "What's in the bag?"

"Letters," Lyle says. "It's your mail."

Brainy's frown deepens. "I shouldn't have that much mail. I'm only corresponding with a few other scientists."

"Some of it is letters from scientists," Lyle says. "And some of it is fanmail."

"I don't answer my fanmail," Brainy dismisses immediately, turning away. "You can just throw it out."

"Maybe you _should_ answer your fanmail," Lyle counters. "It's rude to just ignore it."

Brainy scowls. "You know I'm not good with" - he flaps a hand vaguely - "people. Besides, they can't actually expect a response, can they? The rest of you don't reply to all of your mail, surely."

"I do," Lyle replies. "I know a lot of the others do too."

For a moment, Brainy looks a little uncertain, then he shakes his head firmly. "Well, I don't have the time."

"What if we put together a form letter?" Lyle asks. "All you'd have to do is fill in names."

Brainy turns back to his workbench. Seeing that he's unmoved, Lyle plays his last, most desperate card.

"What if I answered it for you?"

Brainy pauses. "You really care that much about it?"

"I think that if people are writing to you, they should get at least some form of acknowledgment."

Brainy is still for another moment, then he shrugs. "Fine, if it means that much to you. Go ahead."

Lyle isn't entirely sure if this really counts as a victory, but he decides to take it as one. "Alright. I'll do it, then. And I'll sort out the scientific letters so you can answer those."

"Now, do you want to look at my proposed upgrades for the Legion rings?" Brainy asks, looking over his shoulder at Lyle.

Lyle grins, setting the bag of mail down to deal with later. "Sure, Brainy, let's see what you came up with this time."

* * *

Lyle decides to type the fanmail responses, both because that makes things easier and because it seems like something Brainy would do anyway. He also does come up with a form letter, because he doesn't think he'd be able to keep up with all the mail otherwise. Then, he sits down with the stack of letters and begins to open them.

Most of the letters, he finds, are fairly flirty. None of it is anything Brainy would respond to, of course, but these girls (and sometimes boys) are trying their best. Lyle tried to respond as kindly as possible while still sounding like Brainy. A few of the letters are just basic thank-yous for the work Brainy does with the Legion, which is more what Lyle was expecting. And then there's a few that are overtly sexual, and those make Lyle pause. How is he supposed to respond to them? What is he supposed to say? The form letter doesn't quite work there, so he sets those letters aside for now. He's never gotten a letter like that, so maybe he'll ask the others what they'd do if they got letters from people asking about face-sitting and the like.

There are a few scientific letters, which Lyle finds are fairly easy to differentiate, especially given that most of those are addressed to Querl Dox and not Brainiac-5. Those, he sets aside for Brainy himself to answer. Most of the others, though, Lyle answers himself, then he gathers up his collection of envelopes and dumps them in a bag to send out in the mail.

Ayla is in the mail room, apparently mailing some letters of her own, and she stares when Lyle starts dumping letters out of his bag. "Whoa, what's up with all the letters?"

"Answers to Brainy's fanmail," Lyle replies, shaking out the last few letters.

"You got Brainy to answer his fanmail?"

"I got him to agree to let me answer his fanmail," Lyle corrects. "I basically just came up with a form letter and put in names."

"Damn, Brainy gets a lot of fanmail," Ayla muses, looking at the pile. "This is answers to all of it?"

"Well..." Lyle hesitates. "There were a few letters that were from scientists, so I gave those to Brainy."

"Okay," Ayla says, "and then what else was there? There was definitely something else."

"There were a couple of letters that were, uh..."

"Oof," Ayla groans. "Brainy gets fans sending him weird sex fantasies too?"

"Yeah," Lyle admits. "And they're really weird." He pauses, processing Ayla's statement, then says, "Wait, you get those too?"

"I think most of the girls do," Ayla replies. "I don't know about the boys, I've never really talked to them about it."

"What do you do with them?" Lyle asks.

"Ignore them, mostly, although sometimes it depends on the content. The really creepy ones just go right in the trash."

"Most is them were kinda creepy," Lyle admits.

"Throw them out, then," Ayla declares. She studies the pile of envelopes for a moment longer, then says, "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you. Want a hand with it next time around?"

"Really?" Lyle asks. "You'd help?"

"Sure! I'll ask the girls too, maybe we can make a night of it." She winks at Lyle. "We can sit around and talk about boys."

"Ayla, you're a lesbian."

"Yeah, but you're gay, so I was trying to make you feel included!"

Lyle snorts. Ayla grins. "So?" she asks. "Girls-plus-Lyle night of answering Brainy's fanmail?"

Lyle can't help but grin back. "Sounds like a date."

"Lyle, we're gay."

"Oh, you know what I meant."

* * *

The mail gets sorted through once a week, so it's not until next week that Lyle has to go back down and divvy it all up again. He sorts out the letters for Brainy he recognizes as scientific correspondence, and he takes the fanmail and shoves it in a bag for himself. He, Ayla, and whatever other Legionnaires she's invited will go through that tonight.

As it turns out, "whatever other Legionnaires Ayla's invited" compromises quite a few female Legionnaires. Salu is there, which Lyle expected, but so are Imra and Tinya and Luornu.

"I invited Jenni, Tasmia, and Jeka too, but I don't know if they'll come," Ayla says. "And Jazmin's not coming, since she's busy doing leader things right now. But Shikari and Nura should be on their way."

"So when you said you'd ask 'the girls,' you meant all of them?" Lyle asks, looking around.

"Yup," Ayla agrees. "And frankly, a lot of us are excited to do this."

"Brainy never talks about his fanmail," Luornu explains. "And we all know he doesn't read it. So it's fun for us to get a chance to do it!"

"It's not that interesting, honestly," Lyle says. "It's mostly just putting names into a form letter and maybe tweaking it a bit if I have to."

"Well," Ayla says, "maybe it'll be more fun if we all work together."

They open up the bag of fanmail, and everyone grabs a letter. Lyle shares his form letter, and they all begin to work. He has the feeling that, judging by some of the giggling from some of the girls, there might be some changes to the form letter happening, but that's alright, as long as they're not bad.

Shikari, Nura, and Jenni all show up, Jenni bearing the news that Tasmia and Jeka won't be coming. Still, that makes nine of them, and eleven when Luornu splits into three, so the work gets done quickly. Shikari needs a bit of help with names, and Jenni turns out to be an atrocious typist, but all in all, they get through the bag quickly, and soon they've got a stack of responses ready and waiting.

"See, that wasn't too bad!" Ayla says. "And now I know that a lot of people are really into the idea of bending Brainy over a lab bench, which isn't something I ever needed to know."

"What should we do with these letters?" Lyle asks, indicating the weirdly sexy ones.

"Ignore them," at least three girls chorus at once.

"If you reply, it just encourages people," Imra adds. "This sort of thing is completely inappropriate to send someone unprompted, so we're not going to encourage it."

"But can we talk about how Brainy is really popular with the ladies?" Ayla says. "And the guys, honestly. I love him, but I didn't see that coming."

"Can you blame them?" Lyle asks, and then immediately wished he hadn't said a thing. All eyes turn towards him, and a lot of them are lighting up with glee.

"Ooh," Ayla says, "are you about to tell us you've got a crush on Brainy?"

Lyle splutters. "I- What-"

"Oh come on, Ayla," Imra says, "it's not like he ever hid it. I may be a telepath, but I didn't need to read his mind to be able to see _that_."

"_What_?"

"Well, of course I _knew_," Ayla retorts. "But it's different if he actually says it out loud."

Lyle is definitely not saying coherent words anymore, and he's honestly not sure he ever will again. "You guys- You _knew_?"

The girls all share a look, and to Lyle's horror, not one of them looks surprised by this revelation. "You weren't exactly subtle," Tinya says after a moment. "I mean, the way you look at him when he's not looking at you?"

There are several coos from the group. Lyle gapes. "You guys noticed that?"

"Oh, honey," Imra says, "you're pretty obvious."

"You should tell him!" Jenni says eagerly.

"Oh, no," Lyle says quickly, "no, absolutely not."

"Why not?" Ayla demands. "You won't get anywhere if you just sit around waiting for _him_ to tell _you_."

"What?" Lyle splutters. "Him- Him to-"

"Oh my god, do you think he doesn't like you back?" Ayla demands.

"He's never shown an interest in romance!" Lyle protests. "Not ever! I mean, look at these letters. If Brainy wanted to date someone, he'd have his choice of person."

"But he doesn't know these people," Salu puts in gently. "He knows you."

"Yes, which makes it worse!" Lyle cries. "If I tell him how I feel, it'll make things weird, and I don't want to make things weird."

"I can't believe you don't realize he likes you back," Ayla mutters.

"He doesn't! He just sees me as a friend!"

"Lyle," Luornu says, "I've known Brainy for longer than anyone else here, and I can tell you with certainty that he's never been like he is with you with anyone else, ever. He doesn't just see you as a friend."

"Green Legion is quite fond of you," Shikari puts in. "When the Legion was separated, he spoke of you often."

"He likes you," Imra says with certainty.

"You've said yourself that Brainy's mind is hard to read!" Lyle cries.

"Maybe," Imra replies, "but I have eyes. I don't need to read his mind to see the way he looks at you."

Lyle pauses. "The way he looks at me?"

"You know how you look at him?" Luornu says. "He looks at you the same way."

"Do you want me to look into the future and see how it'll go if you confess?" Nura asks.

"What- No! I'm not saying anything! Brainy and I are friends, and I want us to stay that way, so I'm keeping my mouth shut."

Ayla lets out a long, dramatic groan. "_Boys_."

Lyle looks at her with dawning realization. "Is this what you meant when you said we could talk about boys?"

"Duh."

"You're all awful," Lyle declares. "All of you. You suck."

"I think we're all okay with that," Imra says. "Are you going to tell Brainy how you feel?"

"No!"

The response from the girls is a chorus of boos.

* * *

The thing is, though, that now that the girls have told Lyle that they think Brainy likes him back, Lyle can't stop thinking about it. He's not sure he believes them, but he still finds himself watching Brainy for any sign of his feelings. He doesn't catch any glimpses of the looks Brainy allegedly gives him, but he _does_ find himself overthinking basically every interaction they have together, so there's that. Thanks a lot, girls.

He also can't help but noticing that Brainy _does_ treat Lyle differently from all his other friends. That doesn't necessarily mean he has romantic feelings for him, but maybe it means something. Luornu said that she'd never Brainy act with any of his friends the way he acted with Lyle, and although none of this is at all conclusive, Lyle can't help but keep thinking about it. Is there a chance? Could Brainy like him back?

Will Lyle ever have the courage to make the first move, cause Brainy sure as hell won't do it?

"Did you actually answer the letters?" Brainy asks nearly a week after Lyle's conversation with the girls, breaking the silence that's thus far filled their lab.

"The fanmail?" Lyle asks. "Yeah, I answered all of it. Well, most of it. There were some letters that were inappropriate, so I ignored them."

"You already answered all of it?" Brainy asks, an eyebrow lifting.

"It wasn't hard," Lyle replies. "I just set up a form letter and put their names into it. The girls helped with the second round."

Brainy hums, looking down at his work.

"Why don't you ever answer it?" Lyle asks, unable to help it. "It's not that hard. You read faster than I do, you could probably reply to everything in an hour."

"I don't want to," Brainy replies simply. "I don't know the people writing me letters. They all just say that they admire me or that they want to thank me, but I don't know them, so their opinions aren't important to me."

"Well, maybe you could get to know them," Lyle counters. "You always have to start somewhere. That's how you make friends, spending time with someone you don't know until you do know them."

"I have enough friends already," Brainy dismisses. "I have the Legion. And I have you."

There's something about the way he says it, the tone he uses when he makes the admission... Lyle is probably just reading too much into things, but it almost sounds like the way he has Lyle is different. Almost like it's deeper.

This is getting ridiculous, Lyle decides. If he wants to gather information, he needs to do more than just observe. He's been doing that for a while now, and it's gotten him all the information it can. Now, if he wants to find out more about Brainy's feelings towards him - and God help him, but he does - he's going to need to actively seek that information out.

If he really wants to know what Brainy's feelings are, Lyle is going to have to share his own first. The good thing is, he thinks he knows how to do it.

* * *

The next day, when Lyle sorts through the mail again, he adds an additional letter to Brainy's pile of scientific correspondence. The letter isn't scientific in nature at all, but Lyle was sure to put it in an official-looking envelope and make it look as serious as possible. Hopefully, Brainy won't realize what it is until he's already opened it and begun reading.

The rest of the letters, as usual, go into a bag for Lyle to answer. The letters for Brainy go into the chute to bring them directly to his room. Lyle drops the additional letter into the chute, then he goes to Ayla's room and knocks on her door.

"Hi?" Ayla frowns a little as she opens it. "Lyle, what-"

"I just wrote Brainy a love letter and gave it to him," Lyle says. "Help."

Ayla's eyes go huge. "You- Wait, _what_?"

"Last night," Lyle says, "I wrote Brainy a love letter. And then this morning, when I sorted through the mail, I sent it up to his room. And it seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm pretty sure I'm going to die, so please convince me that I didn't just ruin my life entirely."

Ayla studies him for a long moment, then turns around and yells into her room, "Salu! Do we have any wine?"

"We have a bottle," Salu calls back.

"That'll do for now," Ayla says. "Come on in, we're having a drink."

It might only be early afternoon, but Lyle definitely isn't about to argue.

He, Ayla, and Salu have gotten through most of the bottle when there's a knock at the door. Ayla looks over at Lyle, who nods, and then she opens it to find Brainy on the other side.

"I'm looking for Lyle," he says. "Imra said he was here."

Ayla hesitates, but Lyle makes the decision for her and stands. "I am. Hey, Brainy."

Brainy's attention immediately shifts to Lyle. "Can we talk?"

"Sure," Lyle says, thankful for the bit of liquid courage he was able to imbibe before Brainy arrived. "Thanks for everything, Ayla, Salu."

Salu squeezes Lyle's hand. "You're always welcome here," she promises.

"Go get 'em, tiger," Ayla says, squeezing Lyle's shoulder.

Brainy waits just outside the door, standing oddly still. Brainy has a tendency to fidget, which Lyle has always attributed to the sheer amount of thinking going on in his head, but now he's hardly breathing.

"Should we go to my room?" Lyle asks. "It's just down the hall."

"I know where your room is," Brainy replies. "And yes, we should."

Lyle leads the way, opening his door and letting Brainy in. "In the interest of full disclosure," he says as the door closes behind him, "I'm a little tipsy. Ayla and Salu and I split a bottle of wine, so I only had two glasses, but I thought you should know."

"Two glasses isn't enough to cause cognitive impairment, is it?" Brainy asks.

Lyle shrugs. "Not really. I'm just a little tipsy, like I said. But, uh, I might not have as much of a filter as I usually do."

Brainy nods, then he pulls a paper out of his pocket. "I read your letter."

"I figured."

"I- I didn't know you felt that way."

This is, Lyle is fairly sure, gearing up to be an "I'm flattered, but I don't feel the same way and now things are awkward" conversation. Considering it's Brainy, there might not even be the "I'm flattered" part. A part of Lyle wishes he'd manage to drink a little more wine before this confrontation, but he wouldn't want to be drunk for it, so perhaps this is for the best anyway.

"Nothing has to change if you don't want it to," Lyle says. "We can just keep being friends. Unless it makes you uncomfortable, in which case-"

Brainy shakes his head, compulsively unfolding and refolding the letter in his hands. "It- No, it doesn't. Make me uncomfortable, I mean."

Lyle's not entirely certain he believes that. Brainy went from being too still to being twitchy in a way that seems unlike his normal fidgeting. This isn't normal behavior for him, and Lyle can't help but assume that means he's uncomfortable.

"Look," he says, "if you want to talk about this, then just say what you want to say. You can be blunt, I can take it. I think that's better than dancing around the topic."

"Very well," Brainy says. "Your letter said that you have romantic feelings for me. I feel the same."

Lyle blinks. "You… have romantic feelings for yourself?"

Brainy stares at him. "What? No, I have romantic feelings for _you_."

"You- Wait, you _what_?"

"You do have romantic feelings for me, do you not?" Brainy asks, suddenly seeming uncertain. "That was what your letter was about? I didn't misinterpret it?"

"No, that's what it was about, but can we go back to the part where you just said _you_ have romantic feelings for _me_? I- Okay, I was _hoping_, but I didn't actually expect this."

"Nor did I expect your letter," Brainy replies. "I… I nearly did not read it. It had no return address, and so I thought it might be fanmail that was misfiled."

"It sort of was fanmail," Lyle admits. "But it wasn't misfiled."

"As you know, I normally have little interest in letters from fans," Brainy replies. "But then I realized it was from you. As I said, the opinions of those I don't know mean little to me, but _your_ opinion…"

"I'm glad to know you care about it."

"I care about it perhaps more than anyone else's," Brainy admits. "And what you wrote… I believe I ought to thank you for it."

"You don't have to thank me for having a crush on you, Brainy," Lyle replies. "Especially if you like me back. That's thanks enough."

Brainy nods. "So, now that we have both admitted our feelings, the next step is securing a relationship, is it not?"

"If we both want one," Lyle agrees.

"I do. Do you?"

"More than anything."

Brainy nods once more. "I believe the traditional way to seal such a partnership is with a kiss?" he asks, looking almost a little pleading.

Well, he's not going to have to plead much. "Pretty sure it is," Lyle replies, taking a step forward. "Shall we?"

Brainy leans forward and presses his lips against Lyle's. It's clear that Brainy doesn't have much experience kissing; his actions are more academic than anything else, at least until Lyle starts kissing back. Then he seems to manage to fall into the rhythm of it fairly quickly. It would seem that twelfth-level intellect is good for something after all.

The girls, Lyle thinks, are going to be unbearably smug, then Brainy lets out a little sigh against Lyle's lips and kisses a bit harder, and Lyle stops thinking about pretty much anything at all.

* * *

_Dear Brainy,_

_You've probably already recognized my handwriting from the greeting, so yes, this is from me, Lyle. Right now, you're probably wondering why I wrote you a letter instead of going to our lab to talk to you face-to-face, but just wait a second, we'll get there._

_I've read a lot of your fanmail over the past few weeks, and so I've got a pretty good idea of what a lot of people find attractive about you. People like your intelligence, and your looks, and the way your butt looks in those booty shorts you wore that one time. But those people don't _know_ you, and you said you don't care about people's opinions if you don't know them, so you probably don't care about what those people find attractive about you. Let me go on the record here, though, and say that they're all right, and all of those things are very attractive. Including the booty shorts thing._

_But those aren't the only things about you that are attractive. Those people don't know you, but I do, and I've seen the way you care so deeply about people in danger, and the way you'll do whatever it takes to help them. I've seen you happy, and I've seen you sad, and I've seen you feeling every other emotion I can think of, and I've seen the way you've got this intrinsic core of goodness, no matter what. I've seen _you_, Brainy, all of you, and that's what's the most attractive. Not your smarts, not your body, but the person you are inside. That's what I'm attracted to, at least._

_This isn't meant to be a plea. It's more of a confessional than anything else, really. This is me, confessing my feelings. And I have a lot of them, and they're pretty strong, but they mostly boil down to this: I love you, Brainy. You're my best friend, and you're one of the most important people in my world, and I love you. I don't know if you feel the same, but either way, that's okay. I just thought you should know._

_Here's hoping you got this far, and you're not about to throw this letter in the garbage or light it on fire or something. I guess that's the risk you take when you write your feelings down. I'm glad I did it, though. I want you to know. I guess it's up to you to figure out what to do now._

_Your best friend, no matter what,_

_Lyle_

* * *

(And if Lyle starts getting more fanmail after that, all written in a familiar, crisp hand… Well, the girls are already smug enough about all of this, so really, no one else needs to know.)


End file.
